The UN Small Arms Review Conference

A Control Arms campaign, a Million Faces petition, an Arms Trade Treaty and a UN Conference - David Lawson fills in the gaps.

Julius Arile, the millionth person to join the million faces petition, stands in front of some of the faces in New York. Julius presents the petition to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the conference.

The event: The UN ‘Small Arms Review Conference’
When: 26 June to 7 July 2006
Where: New York

What are the effects of small arms?

What do Alistair Grimason and Alana Gadiyeva have in common? They are both victims of the arms trade. Two-year-old Alistair from East Kilbride, Scotland, was shot during a gunfight when on holiday with his parents in Turkey on 7 July 2003. Nine-year-old Alana, from Russia, was killed during the Belsan siege, which lasted from 1 - 3 of September 2004. Real lives are destroyed by small arms.

What is being done to stop this happening again?

Amnesty International, IANSA and Oxfam have jointly run the Control Arms campaign. This campaign has focused on the illicit arms trade, which contributes to half a million deaths each year from small arms. In the time it takes you to read this article it is likely three people have been killed by firearms, and these victims are probably women, children and the elderly.

The Control Arms campaign has managed to reach its target for the Million Faces petition after three years of hard work. The idea behind the campaign was to put pressure on governments all over the world before the UN’s Small Arms Review Conference. They are urging the world’s governments to sign a global Arms Trade Treaty at the conference which would create legally binding arms controls, resulting in the collection and sabotage of illegal weapons, and more effective coordination of international efforts to those ends.

What would be a good outcome from this conference?

I think the best outcome would be the complete abolishment of the arms trade. However, I know that isn’t going to happen overnight and more realistic targets need to be set. First and foremost, an Arms Trade Treaty needs to be agreed upon and ratified. More than that, the treaty has to be effectively implemented. Governments must alter their laws to incorporate the principles of the Arms Trade Treaty and local authorities need to collect and destroy illegal weapons and introduce education programmes to end cultures of violence – especially for the 300,000 child soldiers - and provide alternative livelihoods for those who depend on violence for a living.

On top of that I think the licit trade in small arms has to be dealt with. Otherwise the tragic deaths of people like Alistair and Alana will continue. Hopefully an Arms Trade Treaty will be signed and the Control Arms campaign will be in a strong position to push for further action to limit legal weapons.

The world is watching.